This is the first time I’ve posted in probably almost a year.
I struggled with Open Diary, hoping that the place that I called ‘home’ online would get it’s stuff together and get fixed. I finally gave up, but Prosebox felt weird - it is just different. I haven’t logged in, or even tried to log into OD since the beginning of the year, and having not kept up with things there, I honestly didn’t know that they finally shut the site down. Wow. I missed out on a lot of entries being saved, but it could’ve been worse. I have everything from July 2001 until July 2013 saved, I had downloaded it ages ago.
Anyway. Here I am. Again. Craving an outlet and this has always been an outlet for me.
Last year I started teaching in a Title I district in the low country of South Carolina. It was rough. Fights all the time, uncontrollable kids…the kids were in really bad situations. If they even had a place to call home, their parents were abusive or neglectful a lot. High or drunk. We had 5th graders selling pot with their parents. Awful stuff. I survived.
Nick got a new job in Greenville in the spring and for 10 weeks he lived in Greenville and I lived in Aiken until school let out. That was sucky. I don’t know how my friends Laken and Steve managed to deal with the time they had to spend apart, with Steve in a war zone for a year at a time and all - we could barely deal with not seeing each other every week! We have an apartment in Greenville now. Nick might get a small promotion at work which is good. I am teaching at three schools in Greenville and they are fabulous. One is a Title I school but there aren’t fights all the time or anything. The other two are ‘normal’ schools I guess. The kids are mostly middle to upper middle class and it is still weird for me to tell a class to do XYZ and they do XYZ! I haven’t had to scream at a class yet (Probably jinxed myself now LOL)! Screaming at classes has a lot to do with the kids, their home life, and their teacher so don’t jump all over me for that. If a kid is screamed at while at home, and their teacher is a screamer too, that is all they will react to. So then their specials teachers have to yell and scream or the kids just don’t give a flip. I hated that. If a teacher lets a class be loud in their homeroom, they are louder for specials. That is just how it is.
I might not be teaching much longer though. Even though I like where I am a lot - even with traveling between three schools I like it. Everyone is nice. Normal. Not insane. Parents are for the most part responsive. It is nice. Also what is great? Not having an hour and fifteen minute commute one way. The furthest school I live away from is 35 minutes away in morning traffic. Love it. Closest school is less than 15 minutes away! Also, I teach 25 classes instead of 37 this year!
My low country school district refused to release me from my contract with them. The one I had already signed before we knew if Nick was going to get a new job that would take us away from where we were living. They are requesting that my teaching license be suspended for a year because I broke their contract. What happened was I let them know for sure that we were moving away in the summer (we weren’t sure if the job would work out, be permanent, that we’d even like Greenville since we’d never been, etc) and sent in my letters of resignation. I contacted my principal and let her know. Well…not sure where my old principal is, but they apparently got a new principal in July and HR never informed this new principal to hire for an art teacher. HR says that they ‘tried’ to email a few people for the position but never received responses. What? Who A)Only emails for a job and doesn’t call and B)Never follows up? They said they’d release me if they found a replacement. Well they didn’t find one until September because they didn’t try! The board of trustees there could have released me under an extenuating circumstances clause in my contract because we moved 3.5 hours away from the district, but they decided not to. I called the superintendent and he just said ‘that’s what happens when you sign a contract’. So…you can take my livelihood away because you choose not to release me based on the clauses that you can release me under? You say that you couldn’t find a replacement because you didn’t bother actually trying? How is that my fault?
Anyway. We hired a lawyer who specializes in employee contract law. We have a hearing in less than a month. I’m scared. My lawyer says I shouldn’t be because this is just ridiculous. I’m still scared. I haven’t been able to feel comfortable in my job yet because of this.
Nick says that no matter what it will be okay. He is starting to get ready to look for a new job (depending on this possible promotion, which he has gotten two recommendations for) and he said that he’d look wherever for a new job. We could move again. We like Greenville a lot but we don’t have friends or family here. Nick has had the misfortune that the place he works at has high turnover because promotion, pay raises, and incentives are rare and people use it as just a stepping stone to the next best job (which is what he was doing too) so everyone he becomes friends with leaves and a lot move away from the area. I’m afraid to spend much money on things because of the situation that we are in legally so going out to be a ‘regular’ at a bar is out right now. I’ve got some prospects at the schools I’m at but a lot of people aren’t really reciprocating to me much. I understand why - I’m a floating teacher and the district will probably put me in 2-3 new schools next year and I probably won’t be at the schools I teach at currently. And the school district is huge - 70,000+ students. Lots of schools.
Anyway. I feel so much better getting this off of my chest. I’m stressed and just trying to not think about it much. The only thing I have to say - I wish we were able to form a Teacher’s Union in South Carolina. And this is coming from a pretty conservative girl who never saw much use in unionizing. Well… now I do. This whole situation would have been just gone a month and a half ago if we had a union.
It feels good to write again. We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do, we have done a lot of traveling back and forth between the coast, Aiken, and Greenville for a few weeks on the weekends and our apartment is really showing some grossness from lack of laundry and cleaning. The leaves here are gorgeous, so we will probably take a drive up into the Blue Ridge Mtns tomorrow or today to see the leaves some more. Maybe a day trip up to Asheville. I have a painting class tonight to teach - I’ve been making a little extra side money by teaching paint n’ sip classes at a local studio a couple times a week. Its fun.
Have a good Saturday…Proseboxland :)
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